Tonight’s racing action was good and close in both divisions of Monster Trucks and the same was true in the Street Warriors. And we had a great Freestyle show from three riders that came from all corners of the country.

In Monster Jam racing, on a J- style track for qualifying, the eight trucks ended up like this:

King Krunch / David Smith 10.36
El Toro Loco / Lupe Sosa 10.53
Airborne Ranger / Joe Cypher 10.72
Blue Thunder / Tony Farrell 11.88
McGRUFF / Rod Wood
Tuff n Nuff / Sterling Littlejohn
Cyborg / Jack Koberna
El Matador / Daron Basl

I gave the 4 fastest times because that is what really mattered most. These four trucks were the class of the field and when it was all said and done, it was King Krunch who walked away the winner in a close race against El Toro Loco. Lupe was a little off his game tonight. And the actual racing was done Chicago style witch was way different than the j-style qualifying. It was good racing.

In freestyle, it was a great show! Seven trucks made the event and all seven ran well. Blue Thunder broke during the latter rounds of drag racing and came to freestyle with a mission on his mind. King Krunch had a wild run and scored a near perfect 29, with doughnuts, and big air. Airborne Ranger the same and scored a 26. El Matador scored a great 27. And the World Champ, Lupe Sosa in El Toro Loco scored a 25, and here comes Blue Thunder…He just put everyone to waste. He hit everything harder, faster and flew farther. He did wild doughnuts and was on the edge for the entire 60 seconds. He had the crowd going wild.

Our three freestyle riders were great. Jason Biedrzyki from Florida, Doug Cossey from Tennessee and Clint Esposito from Atlanta rode their hearts out. They were doing wild tricks and getting huge air. The crowd loves these guys. And they seem to be getting better at being show men. This was a good element.

In Street Warriors, Sergio Rodriquez won the event out of 7 trucks with a fast time of 20.69. his trucks name…Border Jumper.

This was a good Friday Night Show, 2 more to go!!!

Saturday: 

Well this little Southwestern town was a rockin’, snortin’, bust’em type of town tonight. With eight trucks ready for battle and a nearly full house, the atmosphere was just right for the Old West to come alive with a Monster shoot-out! And that is exactly what they got.

Monster Racing was the most unpredictable part of tonight’s program. If I told you right now who was in the final round you would not believe this reporter/ announcer: But it took a lot of crazy things to get it to this out come, so let me explain.

El Toro Loco beat Tuff-e-Nuff in the first round and McGRUFF beat King Krunch, who broke in the first round. Blue Thunder beat Airborne Ranger and El Matador beat Cyborg. So that set up our Semi’s with El Toro Loco against McGRUFF and Blue Thunder against El Matador.

In the Semi’s El Toro Loco lined up with McGRUFF and they took off, El Toro got a bad start and BROKE!!! This put McGRUFF in the finals. Next it was Blue Thunder against El Matador, Thunder would have lost this round, if not for a penalty against El Matador for hitting a turn pole. So the final was set, McGRUFF and Blue Thunder…

The crowd was at a fever pitch as they lined up for the final, the light went green and Tony Farrell went like a man possessed and won in Blue Thunder by almost ½ a track, it was a convincing win to say the least.

Next FMX and they did a great job again with the same riders as last night: Jason Biedrzyki, Doug Cossey and Clint Esposito. The tricks were sick and the crowd is starting to learn the names of the tricks, that is kind of cool. The winner tonight was Esposito and he won it with a Superman air-to-a-rock-solid-seat-grab. It was unreal. I thought he was going to buy the farm on that one…

In Street Warriors Charles Benn’s bested a field of the same seven trucks that were here last night. His winnings will all go to the Tingley Children’s Hospital. This is his reason for racing. Anything his team wins goes to this program and it is a great story and it was nice to see him win.

Monster Freestyle was all Blue Thunder. Tony Farrell scored a perfect 30 and he earned every bit of it. He hit each and every car stack, every mound of dirt and did doughnuts to make your eyes water. Then came his final assault on the Tingley course, he hit the dirt FMX landing ramp backwards and flew Blue Thunder like a 767 out of LAX. It was un-real. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great runs by other drivers tonight…but none that came close to Tony’s it was that good. Freestyle results were as follows:

1.     Blue Thunder/ Tony Farrell 30

2.     King Krunch / David Smith 24

3.     El Matador / Daron Basl / 24

4.     Air Borne Ranger / Joe Cypher / 23

5.     El Toro Loco / Lupe Sosa / 20

6.     McGRUFF / Rod Wood

7.  Tuff-e-Nuff / Sterling Littlejohn

8.  Cyborg / Jack Koberna

All in all, a great night of family fun and good racing put on by the New Mexico Lottery and Advance Auto Parts and Ford Trucks.

Sunday:

Sunday there was no shortage of energy. With a good crowd and an enthusiastic set of drivers we had a great show.

In Monster Truck racing, we had the same players as last night in the heat of the battle. With the exception of McGRUFF, who went out in the first round. The Semis were made up of:

Blue Thunder and El Matador and El Toro Loco vs. King Krunch. El Matador and Blue Thunder went to the finals. Blue Thunder was the favorite and El Matador ended up winning by a fender. The crowd went nuts; no-one thought anybody could beat Tony Farrell in Blue Thunder. But as you all know by now, Monster Truck Racing is never predictable.

In Street Warriors, Mike Luray finally got the win he was looking for all weekend. He bested the 5 truck field with a weekend best run in the first round of 19.96 and came back in the finals to run a 20.07 to beat Charles Benn’s who won on Saturday. Benns ran a 21.17 for 2^nd place.

In FMX action, we had a tie for the win again between all three riders. They put on another great show for the crowd. These guys always get better. It was a great show. Jason Biedrzyki, Doug Cossey and Clint Esposito were fantastic.

In Monster Freestyle, Blue Thunder scored a perfect 30 again! With a run that almost mimicked last nights run (see Saturday’s story) for description. El Matador (Daron Basl) scored a 28 as did Air Borne Ranger (Joe Cypher). They got these scores by hitting the freestyle landing ramp and getting big air every where else. They were unreal runs.

McGRUFF / 24

Tuff-n-Nuff/ 22

Cyborg / 16

It was a great weekend of racing at Tingley. The fans were great and so were the sponsors, New Mexico Lottery and Advance Auto Parts and Ford Trucks.

Larry Naston

USHRA Announcer.